Scarlet Eyes
by lanamere
Summary: Sequel to Changing Red. It's been several months since Jason and Alli Todd, moved in with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to work with them as Red Hood and Scarlet Rogue. Alli has been happy, but she's been struggling to adjust to working on a team. The villains have been attempting to kidnap her, and with her uncertain relationship with Dick, will Alli make it through unscathed?
1. Prologue Full Summary Inside

**FULL SUMMARY! PLEASE READ!: It's been several months since Jason Todd and his sister, Allison "Alli" Todd, moved in with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to work with the famous Batman and Nightwing as Red Hood and Scarlet Rogue. Alli has been happy since she moved into Wayne Manor. She has her brother, in control of himself and completely rage free, she has a roof over her head, and food to eat. But she's been struggling to adjust to all the sudden changes. She's not used to working on a team, and the people of Gotham don't entirely trust her, or Jason. Not to mention the villains have decided to go after her and hold her hostage to draw out her teammates, simply because she's the only girl on the team. To top it all off, she has to adjust to the life of Gotham's wealthy class, and deal with the press, and her confusing and unsure love/hate relationship with Dick makes for a dangerous game. Will Alli make it out unscathed and unscarred?  
**

**Here's the second story in my Red Hood: Time of Red series. This will be easier to understand if you read the first one, Changing Red, since there will be a lot of references and will be focusing on a character from that. Enjoy! **

* * *

**Prologue **

Allison Todd was starting to get annoyed. Well, actually, annoyed wasn't the right word for how she was feeling. Pissed, ticked off, or absolutely at the edge of her patience were more accurate descriptions of her emotions. And for once, the source of her annoyance wasn't Dick, or her brother Jason. It wasn't Bruce or Alfred. It wasn't that she couldn't afford any food and it was next to impossible to steal it, or that the police department had done one of their semi-annual warehouse checks and she'd been forced to stay out of her warehouse home. Those were problems she'd never need to worry about again. True, Dick annoyed the hell out of her sometimes but that wasn't it either. Now, she had to deal with _this. _Ever since she'd moved into Wayne Manor, and had joined Batman, Nightwing and her brother, Alli had been happy. She'd never admit it but happier than she'd ever been. But she had not expected this. She knew she'd be commiting herself to late nights and to occasionally getting beat up, but to be kidnapped and held hostage to draw her teammates out? She hadn't seen that coming.

Sure, she was the only girl on the team. And yes, in general, though she hated to admit it, the boys were stronger when it came to brute strength. But that, by _no means, _made Alli weak. What she lacked in brute force she made up for in cunning, agility, and speed. She knew she was not, in any way, a weaker fighter than them. If anything, it made her strive to be better so she could hold her own against them. So when villains decided to target her and kidnap her, they ended up getting more than they bargained for. She may be a girl, but she was _not _willing to play damsel in distress.

Most of the time, by the time Batman, Dick, and Jason would get to wherever she was being held, she'd always already busted herself out, was fighting the leader, or was waiting impatiently for a ride back to Wayne Manor. Despite how often she busted herself out, she was the one they kept on trying to kidnap. True, she'd often allow herself to be kidnapped if she was way outnumbered and wasn't positive she could win the fight. But that was strategy! You'd think after a few times of having their asses handed to them, the bad guys would realize kidnapping her was a bad idea, but they hadn't and it was pissing Alli off.


	2. Night Terrors

**Night Terrors **

Alli had been staring up at the ceiling for almost an hour now. They'd gotten back from _another _rescue Alli from some stupid criminal mission (it had been pointless. By the time they got there, she had the leader tied up, the gang knocked out, and was waiting outside for them to arrive, impatient and pissed off) about 3 hours ago, and had finally gotten to bed about an hour ago, at 12:50. Now, at 3:45, she was awake. She had been asleep for a while, but had kept on jolting awake. This was the 7th time she'd woken up. At least. She sighed and rolled over, trying to fall asleep.

"Shouldn't you be asleep by now?" A voice asked. Her eyes widened, and she sat up, grabbing one of her newly modified swords. When she didn't need them, the blades would shrink away into small metal staffs. The blades slid out, glowing scarlet, lighting up her dark room. There, a few feet away from her bed, holding his hands up in surrender, was the familiar unmasked face of Dick Grayson. She relaxed and layer back on her bed.

"Jesus, Dick, don't do that! I could have freaking impaled you!" Rather than taking the warning to heart, he just grinned, irritating her.

"You could have. But you didn't." He said. "And besides, you never answered my question." She rolled her eyes.

"Shouldn't you be asleep too?" She retorted. "Besides, I saw my brother die in an explosion. You really expect me to sleep easy after that?" She felt him sit down on the bed. Some people might be creeped out by this, and by the fact that he was even in her room in the first place. But she knew he and Jason went crawling through the air vents. Hell, she'd caught him crawling out of one just the other day, and had pretended not to know what he had been doing. And she knew if he tried anything, she could take him. You didn't grow up on the streets and avoid the perverts and rapists by being soft and weak. She knew how to fight. Dick shrugged.

"I don't sleep much anymore after spending most of my life working with Batman." He paused as something she said seemed to register with him. "You...you saw it happen? You saw the warehouse explode?" He asked. She blinked and her eyes widened. She quickly opened her mouth to respond, but Dick wasn't having it. He put a hand over her mouth. "No Alli, you can't talk your way out of that. You said you saw your brother die. Answer this honestly, and know that I'll be able to tell if you're lying: were you there the night Jason was killed in that explosion?" He removed his hand from her mouth. She glared at him defiantly for a minute before sighing.

"Yes." she relented. "I was there." He blinked.

"You didn't rescue him?" She glared at him so fiercely he flinched and raised his hands in surrender again. "Ok I'm sorry. That was a stupid question."

"Of course I tried!" She hissed, pain clear in her voice. "I was almost there, but I was too late. If I'd been just a bit faster, I could have saved him!" In the moonlight, Dick saw years slipping down her cheeks. He felt guilty for asking her that. She sighed. "After he joined Batman, I was always watching out for him. I never lost track of him, and I watched him fight with Batman. I gave up stealing and tried to make ends meet without it so I'd never have to run from him and he'd never have to chase me down and put me in juvie. When I learned he was going on that mission, I followed. Getting there was no small feat. And then...well, I tracked them down." Dick frowned.

"How did you track them? Bruce never leaves a trail you can follow unless you know where to look or what you're looking for." She scowled.

"The important thing is, I found them. The details aren't important." she said. "Let's just say I knew what to look for, and I thought like the criminal. Where would I be if I were looking for trouble and just followed my gut." He nodded. "And right when it mattered most, I screwed up. I was too slow. You don't exactly sleep easy after seeing your little brother, who you swore you'd protect with your life, get blown to bits." She looked away. "I've had...night terrors where I just jolt awake and can't get to sleep for...a while." She blinked in surprise as she felt him wrap his arms around her shoulder and pull her close to him in a hug. He stretched out next to her, holding her close. She tensed up.

"What are you doing?" She asked, suspicious. He smiled slightly.

"I'm trying to comfort you."

"I know that. I meant why? You don't like me. Half the time you act like you hate me."

"I don't hate you Alli. You have a way of irritating me, but I don't hate you, and I'm sorry if I made you feel that I did." he said. She was silent and simply allowed him to. After a while, she sighed and relaxed slightly.

"If you try anything you're dead." She warned, as her eyes began to close. She heard him chuckle softly.

"Don't worry. It's time you have someone besides Jason you can trust to watch out for you." He said softly. Her eyes drifted shut and she slowly fell asleep against him.

* * *

**Couldn't resist a bit of a fluffy bonding moment between them. This probably seems kind of unrelated I know, and the ending might seem...well, a bit weird but...these things start writing themselves after a while. Hope you enjoyed! Peace out! -lanamere**


	3. Rise and Shine

**Rise and Shine **

Dick's eyes slowly opened, and he blinked and quickly squeezed them shut as the light from the window hit his eyes. He groaned slightly. After a minute he was aware he was holding something close to him. And it wasn't Alli. He opened his eyes slowly and saw that he was holding a pillow close instead of Jason's sister. Somehow she'd managed to switch the pillow with herself without waking him. He smiled slightly and shook his head. Sometimes, that girl was too damn clever and sneaky for her own good. It was frustrating. He stood up and poked his head out of her door, to make sure no one was watching and would question him as to why he was exiting Alli's room. He went to the small breakfast nook/kitchen to get himself some breakfast and some coffee. When he got there, he found Alli already there, just finishing her own first cup of the morning. He'd always questioned the necessity of the amount of coffee she drank, and wondered how she could drink so much and not get a sugar buzz. Now he knew why. She needed that much coffee to wake her up and keep her awake in the mornings since she had a constant case of insomnia.

"Ah, and Sleeping Beauty awakens." Alli commented as he walked in. "Good morning Sunshine."

As he stumbled to the coffee maker, still kind of out of it, Dick raised an eyebrow at her.

"Sunshine?" He asked.

"Yep. Because you're so bright and cheerful and obviously awake." She said sarcastically. He grunted and waved her off.

"Too early. Can't function until after my second cup of coffee. How are you so energetic?"

"I'm used to not sleeping and getting up near the crack of dawn for my job."

"Job?"

"Yeah. Even after Jason...died, I didn't want to go back to stealing. So I've been working any job I can get to get myself food. I always had to get up almost as soon as the sun came up. Sleeping in wasn't an option."

"Hm. Speaking of which, how'd you sleep last night?" Dick asked, taking his cup of coffee. She took a sip of her own before answering.

"Fine, thank you. I actually got a couple hours of sleep in." she said. He smiled. Alli looked down. "Look, this doesn't change anything. Just because you helped me get to sleep last night and were trying to comfort me, doesn't mean I'm going to be all cheerful and friendly." Dick smiled and nodded.

"Don't worry, I won't expect you to. In fact, I'd be a bit worried if you did." She scowled at him.

"Shut up! Like _you're _one to talk!" Dick grinned.

"Like Dick's one to talk about what?" Jason asked, yawning slightly as he stumbled into the kitchen, still not completely coherent.

"About how congenial he is in the morning. And general congeniality." Alli said, as she got another cup of coffee, and fixed Jason one.

"Hm..." Jason grinned slightly as he took a sip. "Alli's right Dickie-Bird. You aren't exactly a ray of sunshine before your third cup of coffee or so. And in general you're kind of hard to get along with completely." Alli smirked.

"Told ya so!" she said.

"Hey!" Dick protested. "I'd like to point out that unlike you two, I don't tell someone to fuck off, or something of the sort, whenever they try to make small talk!" The two blood siblings smirked. It was incredibly creepy, how similar their smirks were.

"Maybe so, but you're so damn cheerful all the time. Makes it hard to get along with you. Guess me and Jay are just too fucking cynical and pessimistic to understand how you can be so cheerful. It's a street rat thing, Grayson. Get used to it." Alli said, waving off Dick's attempt to protest.

"And there's also the fact that you always play the role of big brother, even when we just want to be left alone, and are too damn perfect. It gets annoying." Jason said.

"That too." Alli agreed.

"Hey!" Dick opened his mouth to argue back. He and Jason continued to argue, and Alli just rolled her eyes, and strode out of the breakfast nook with her coffee, to her current place of refuge: the Training Area.

She felt the corners of her mouth quirk upwards in a slightly smirkish smile. _Oh yeah! _Fully equipped, decked out with punching bags of all consistencies and weights, acrobatic training equipment, a full out sparring ring (which Alli often made good use of in group training to prove her mettle against Dick or Jason, or even, on rare occasions, Bruce), weights and other exercise equipment, and plenty of targets and weapons to go around. Not to mention the mission simulator to help her test her skills in a mock mission. This was where she could often be found, training long after the mandatory group or one-on-one sessions with Bruce were over. Constantly pushing. She figured it was a variation of all the running and jumping across buildings and other strenuous activities she'd put herself through in an attempt to exhaust herself into a dreamless sleep, a carry-over of an old habit into this new life. But it had always been futile, and was still proving to be futile. She almost never slept, and she was always, _always, _ever since Jason's death, jolted awake from nightmares. She'd stopped crying from them a while ago. Now they just filled her with a primal kind of fear and pain and guilt. Which she would work off here nowadays.

On bad days, it was best, and fairly easy, to stay out of her way. Upon losing control of her considerable temper, which at its worst could rival or even surpass Jason's, a feat and accomplishment of its own, she'd swear up a storm, turning the air blue with curses in multiple languages Jason had taught her and that she'd trained herself in, storm off, lock herself in her room for a while and kind of rage, crawl into the vents and over to the Training Area, and continue to beat the shit out of punching bags and sink knives and other deadly projectiles into targets, throwing some of these projectiles at anyone who dared come near and/or got in the way. Alfred was the only one she'd always make a conscious effort not to hit. Anyone else was fair game when she was in her moods. So far she'd had a couple bad days, and as soon as she calmed herself down, and swallowed her pride, she would always apologize.

The Training Area was her sanctuary and place of release in a sense. She could take everything, all her rage, hatred, bitterness, and regret and guilt out on the dummies and punching bags, several of which were shaped like The Joker, Ra's al Ghul, and various other villains and criminals. She started off with a few basic aerobic exercises before moving on to the very appealing villain shaped punching bags. She grabs several of the Joker and Ra's al Ghul shaped ones. They're her usual target. She despised Joker for obvious reasons, with a hatred that rivaled that of Jason and Bruce, and, despite being the reason she had her brother now, she'd always be bitter and angry at the Demon's Head for getting Jason killed in the first place. They'd never have had to go through all this if Ra's hasn't hired the Joker to distract Batman and her brother from his activities all those years ago. She started easily whaling on one of each of them at the same time, practicing her hand to hand skills. As she continued, her mind wandered to the completely unexplainable events the past night.

Dick sure did have a way of irritating and confusing her. That was...ok if she was being fair, the irritating part was fairly easy. But confusing her, she liked to think, was a different matter. But the first Robin seemed to always find some way to do both. Sometimes he'd act like he couldn't stand her, and ok, maybe sometimes she'd snap at him more than necessary, and then other times they were cool with each other, letting them do their own thing, accepting that they were very different people. And then, _then, _there were the most confusing times. The times when he was very caring, and almost, dare she say it, sweet. Times like the past night. She knew he snuck around in the air vents sometimes, she'd caught him sneaking out of one the other day, but had pretended not to notice. But the fact that he'd bothered to come, that he'd been so comfortable trying to comfort her, when most other people walked on eggshells around her, especially when it came to showing affection. People always just kept their distance. They only saw the hostility that she displayed towards others. Part of it was a defense mechanism. She didn't trust people easily, and she hated pity. But with him, it was like he never got the memo that she _did not, _repeat, _DID NOT _take pity from anyone, or completely ignored it, and just...was forward with her. Alli appreciated that he didn't walk on eggshells around her, or be cautious with how he acted, but at the same time, it irritated her. She may be a girl, but definitely wasn't the sappy one. That was Dick. By far. She didn't need babying or special treatment. She had survived without both for almost her entire life.

Someone cleared their throat behind her. She turned and saw Bruce.

"Excuse the interruption, but I think you've beaten the punching bags." He said, nodding at the now a bit more ragged and beat up looking Joker and Ra's al Ghul bags. He raised an eyebrow. She rubbed the back of her head and neck.

"Oh...yeah...whoops?" She said nervously. Bruce just shook his head.

"Don't push yourself too hard Alli." He said simply, before moving on. She put away the punching bags, and did a few more exercises, before sighing and grabbing a water bottle and heading out to the main hall. As she came down the stairs, she was greeted by a sight absolute chaos.


	4. Decorating

**Decorating **

Alli looked around. The main floor of the manor was a complete and utter mess. There was pink and red sparkly heart confetti everywhere, and pink tinsel was thrown everywhere haphazardly. There was some clear attempts at hanging it on the walls, some more successful than others. Boxes full of more pink and red things were also scattered across the floor. She raised an eyebrow and followed the sounds of voices and off-tune sappy love ballads to the family room. There, Jason and Dick putting up decorations, a big pine tree in the room, arguing over the ornaments and occasionally belting out horribly out of tune love ballads (Dick more so than Jason). She raised an eyebrow at the sight.

"The hell is goin' on here?" She asked, coming down the small staircase into the actual family room. They looked up.

"Alli!" Dick grinned at her. "Great, you can help us!" Jason smiled at her.

"Grab some decorations! We need all the help we can get!" Alli raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms, and came to a stop at the bottom of the steps.

"Again: what the hell are you guys doing?" She repeated. Dick grinned.

"We're decorating."

"No shit Sherlock. Why?"

"For Valentines Day of course!" She raised an eyebrow and tried to remember the date. She nodded, realizing the holiday was indeed about to start.

"And you're doing this _because...?" _

"Oh yeah, you probably didn't really celebrate the holidays! Well-"

"I know what Valentine's Day is Grayson." She interrupted, but seemed more amused than annoyed. "I meant, why are _you guys _decorating instead of Alfred? Because, as well meaning as you may have been when volunteering to help, I'm sure that you're only causing more work as he'll have to fix all of your...well, to put it perfectly bluntly, sloppy attempts." She nodded at the uneven tinsel and other decorations they had attempted to put up so far. Dick rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"That's why we were kind of hoping you'd help..." He said. Her eyebrow raised even higher, if such a thing was possible.

"Why?" Jason was making motions for Dick to shut up. Dick, naturally, either ignored him, or didn't see him. He plunged on, looking a bit awkward.

"Well, because you're a girl. Usually they're the ones who can make everything look pretty, and nice." Jason face palmed, and waited for Alli to attack Dick. Alli surprised him however, and just looked amused.

"I grew up and spent my whole life on the streets, on the bad side of Gotham. No one ever spent much time making anything look 'pretty.' I never bothered with it either." She pointed out, eyebrow still raised.

"Told you." Jason muttered to Dick. Dick scowled at Jason, and turned back to Alli.

"Well, yeah, but...girls are usually more...artistically predisposed, and have a natural eye for this kind of stuff."

"Dickie-Bird, you're a glutton for punishment." Jason muttered.

"Shut up Jay." They turned to Alli, waiting for her response. She considered them and the room.

"What about Alfie? Is he helping?" The boys shared slightly nervous glances.

"...He's doing the ballroom." Dick admitted. Alli blinked, and her eyebrow rose again, but she shrugged it off.

"Well, I can't promise anything too spectacular. But I guess I can try to help." She said, walking fully in. Dick grinned at her and looked like he might start jumping up and down (seriously, what is _up _with the guy?). Jason grinned, a hint of a smirk on his face.

* * *

By the time they were done, Alli had managed to mostly fix, or at least _improve, _all of Jason and Dick's attempts. It helped that they'd gotten a fairly good start. She'd straightened out the tinsel and helped them finish/fix other decorations they'd put up. Alfred might still decide to change or straighten out a couple things a bit more, but it was better than it would have been. Alli nodded in satisfaction. She'd insisted they sweep up the confetti, at least partially, and they'd gotten it to at least look a bit better, but that could wait. Everything else was in place. The Manor looked as if it had been doused in fruit punch, and Pepto-Bismol from all the pink and red, with little baby cupids and roses and hearts all over the place. Alli absolutely despised it. But it had been somewhat entertaining.

Alli collapsed down on the couch. "Well, I think we're done for now." Jason and Dick agreed, collapsing down on either side of her. She felt slightly squashed, and elbowed them both over so she had room to breathe.

"Ow! Geez Alli, you're elbows are _sharp!" _Dick complained when her elbow dug into his side.

Jason snickered at his brother's plight. Alli promptly grabbed his hand and digging her sharp fingernails into the skin of his thumb.

"Ow! Hey! No scorpions! Your claws are sharp! Breaking skin isn't nice!" Jason complained, as he began to do it back, wincing. But Alli had caught him off guard and her claws (sorry _nails) _were much sharper than his. Finally he relented. "Scorpion." He grumbled. She released her hold on him. He rubbed the nail marks she'd left, scowling while Dick laughed. She rolled her eyes. Jason was grumbling still about her sharp 'claws.' She just smirked at him.

"Forgot how badly I can beat you at that Jay Jay?" She asked, smirking. Jason gave her a half hearted death glare.

"Don't call me 'Jay Jay.'" He muttered.

"Make me, _Jay Jay." _she challenged, a steely glint in her eyes. Dick's eyes widened as he saw the same look reflected in Jason's eyes. He quickly backed off to the far end of the couch, out of the range of fire. Jason looked like he was about to try something when Alli grabbed his hand and started digging her nails in the marks. He yanked his hand away quickly.

"Screw you Alli." She smirked.

"No thank you. I'm not into incest." He glared at her.

"Go fuck yourself than." She laughed.

"Again, no. Not only is that impossible, it wouldn't be as fun." Jason glared at her fully.

"Since when are _you _the one with the dirty mind and comebacks? That's my job!" He protested. She smiled.

"Love you too, Jason."

"...Seriously though, when and where did you pick up that stuff? You always used to smack me if I used them on you when we were little." Alli smirked. Dick was attempting to hold in laughter as he moved back over now that a possible fight was avoided.

"You guys have such dirty minds." He said to them. Alli rolled her eyes and Jason snorted.

"Says the guy who's trying not to laugh." He challenged. Dick pouted.

"Hey!" Jason laughed.

"_Real _grown up, Grayson. You're _clearly _the eldest." he said sarcastically. Dick pouted even more.

"Very funny Jason." Alli rolled her eyes.

"I'm going to get out of here before your idiocy and childishness rubs off. I'll be in my room if you need me." she said, standing up and heading up the stairs.

* * *

**Dick **

Dick watched Alli head up the stairs to her room.

"We should have told her. Given her some warning so she wouldn't completely flip out later." He told Jason. His brother nodded.

"Probably."

"We'll why didn't you?!"

"Why didn't I?! Why didn't _you?! _I thought _you _were!" Jason exclaimed.

"I'm not in the mood to get murdered Jay! You're her brother, you have a better chance of walking away alive, why don't you?!"

"She'll still murder me even if I tell her Dickhead!"

"But you have a better chance of survival! She won't murder you after everything she's gone through to get you back!"

"...that was low, man."

"Yeah...yeah that was a low blow."

"Yeah it was."

"Whatever. We'll figure it out later. Come on."

* * *

**And that was my (very late and lame) attempt at working the holidays into this story. Sorry, originally it was going to be for Christmas but I tried to do it like Christmas Day, which didn't work out, and then I switched it to Valentine's but then I forgot to upload it in time so it's late, but I couldn't really change it to Rodeo, since that's only a big holiday where I live. So you have this. Which will continue its lateness over the course of the next couple chapters as we get to know Alli better, and see more of her relationship with Dick, and her brother, and Bruce and Alfred. Peace out! -lanamere**


End file.
